Mr Smooth hits a rough spot

David Gonski
’s head hit the ceiling this week. One of Australia’s best connected businessman, famous for exercising power with discretion, found himself on a turbulent ride to the the top job at Australia’s $73 billion Future Fund.

The government was accused of mishandling his appointment by asking him to recommend who should replace
David Murray
and then choosing Gonski himself.

Former Liberal treasurer
Peter Costello
, who thought he should be a contender, complained loudly about this process and the Liberal Party amplified his wails, apart from his former finance minister,
Nick Minchin
, who demurred, saying the the position should be above politics. Yet for every business person deploring the process there was mostly a good word for Gonski, evidence of the breadth and depth of his business network. One of Costello’s business supporters said off the record that Gonski had too many board positions and should not take the job on that basis.

So the man supposed to be Mr Fix-it found himself part of the problem and Australian business was reminded of the perils of politics. Gonski has a lifetime of accumulated power, achieved with masterly ability to persuade.

He may not have the most impressive CV, but it is surely one of the most adorned. Can the man who says he has the drive of the immigrant to prove himself turn this bumpy interlude into another passage to power?